Apocalypse: King of Zombies

The battle lasted less than half an hour.

Every Void Realm creature that had come to Fallen Star City was wiped out. Not a single one escaped.

Their numbers hadn’t been small, but numbers didn’t mean much when a Stage SS Glacial Bear was ripping through the battlefield. And it wasn’t the only monster on Fallen Star City’s side.

Ethan and the others had always believed in eliminating threats at the root. Since these creatures had come all the way here… they might as well stay here forever.

Sure, wiping them out had cost over a million zombies.

But compared to the sheer size of the horde, that loss barely mattered.

Ethan didn’t feel a thing watching zombies die. He never had. Honestly, the only reason he’d had Skinny Pete use the Zombie King to gather that many in the first place was to use them as disposable cannon fodder.

Nobody would’ve guessed it—humanity’s greatest enemy from before was now taking hits for Fallen Star City.

And the zombies weren’t just meat shields, either.

Most of the time, they camped around Fallen Star City’s perimeter, blocking low-tier Void Realm creatures and Outland Beasts before they could get close.

More than that, they were the city’s eyes.

Any Void Realm creature trying to approach would run into the zombie line first, which meant Fallen Star City would spot the situation immediately and respond before it escalated.

So yeah—zombies played a bigger role than most people wanted to admit.

Once the fighting ended, the entire battlefield was carpeted with corpses—zombies and Void Realm creatures piled together in a grisly mess.

Aside from a few dozen Tier 29 peak Void Realm creatures left frozen solid, every other invader was dead.

Some weren’t even fully intact anymore.

Ethan and the others didn’t look especially excited. With the Glacial Bear on their side, this outcome had been inevitable from the start.

Ethan lifted a hand, beckoning.

Up in the air, the Flamebird leader, Ember, swooped down at once.

”These bodies are yours,” Ethan said, rubbing Ember’s head. ”Take them back and eat at your leisure.”

”Chirp…!”

Ember’s eyes practically lit up. It cried out to its flock.

A moment later, more than thirty thousand Flamebirds dove from the sky. Each one grabbed a corpse in its beak and carried it back toward their roost.

With that much food, their strength was about to skyrocket over the next stretch of time.

”Miles,” Ethan said, turning. ”Have people dig out the zombies’ crystal cores. And while you’re at it, get these corpses cleaned up.”

”Got it.” Miles nodded, waved a hand, and called over the Fallen Star Corps stationed nearby, relaying the orders.

Before long, a huge number of Fallen Star Corps members were out on the field, working through the aftermath.

Ethan also summoned a few dozen Fallen Star Guard members, having them shoulder the frozen Void Realm captives and haul them back toward the compound.

He looked at the Glacial Bear and grinned. ”Thanks for this one. Come on—let’s go inside and eat some barbecue. This time, you can eat your fill.”

But the Glacial Bear didn’t react.

Its gaze was locked on something in the distance, unblinking.

Ethan followed its line of sight—and froze, surprised.

The bear was staring at Dopey.

”…What?” Ethan asked, baffled. ”What is it?”

”Roar…!”

The Glacial Bear rumbled low, and a wave of fighting intent rolled off its body—so clear it was almost tangible.

Ethan’s scalp went tight. ”Wait, what does that mean?”

”It says Dopey’s strong,” Skinny Pete translated, looking just as weirded out. ”It wants to fight him.”

”….”

Ethan didn’t even know what to say.

This bear had just finished wrecking half a battlefield, and now it was already hunting for the next brawl?

Couldn’t it get tired like a normal creature for once?

Ethan hurriedly put Dopey away. Dopey was his strongest trump card—if it got smashed, Ethan wouldn’t even have anywhere to cry about it.

The moment Dopey vanished, the Glacial Bear’s gaze snapped over and pinned Ethan in place.

”Uh… Dopey’s just a Stage S soulless thrall,” Ethan said quickly. ”There’s no way he’s your match. Let’s just forget it, alright?”

The bear didn’t react.

It just kept staring at him—staring in that blunt, unblinking way that somehow translated perfectly:

Fine. You put him away. Then you fight me.

Ethan’s skin crawled. He could only turn and plead with his eyes for help from Henry.

Henry quickly stepped between them.

”Big guy, let’s not fight our own people, okay? That soulless thrall isn’t strong enough for you anyway. Come on, I’ll get you more roasted meat.”

The Glacial Bear glanced at Henry, but it still didn’t back off. It gave a low huff in Henry’s direction.

Henry looked confused and turned to Skinny Pete.

”It says it just wants to spar,” Skinny Pete translated in a rush. ”It won’t cause any real harm.”

”…That’s…” Henry hesitated, then looked at Ethan.

Ethan realized there was no dodging it. With a sigh, he summoned Dopey again.

”Alright, but listen—just a spar,” Ethan warned. ”No heavy hits.”

”Roar…” The Glacial Bear rumbled at him and flicked its paw like it was shooing a fly—move it already, stop talking.

Ethan could only retreat helplessly. He led everyone far back, clearing the field and leaving the space to the two of them.

”Ethan,” Chris said, frowning hard, ”that bear is Stage SS. Isn’t Dopey in danger?”

”In danger or not, what choice do I have?” Ethan said, exasperated. ”If I don’t let them fight, the one in danger is me. Did you see that look? If I refused, I’m pretty sure it would’ve tried to spar with my face.”

He let out a long breath.

”Just… hope this thing knows what ’lightly’ means.”

But the instant Ethan finished speaking, the Glacial Bear lifted its massive paw and pressed it down toward Dopey.

A gigantic iceberg formed out of thin air and crashed down, burying Dopey underneath it.

”Holy shit!” Big Mike nearly jumped out of his boots. ”What happened to taking it easy? Why is the first move already a damn ultimate?”

Everyone’s expressions changed at once. They stared, tight-chested, at the enormous iceberg squatting in the middle of the field.

”BOOM—!”

A blast shook the air.

The iceberg exploded into shards, and a figure shot out like a cannonball—then Dopey was already in front of the bear, driving a fist forward with thunderous force.

The Glacial Bear’s eyes lit up. In the same instant, a layer of crystalline ice armor snapped into place over its body.

”Bam—!”

Dopey’s plain, no-frills punch smashed into the armor.

The crystalline shell shattered.

And the Glacial Bear actually slid back two full steps.

”Holy shit!!!”

Ethan and the others went dead-still.

Mouths open. Eyes wide.

Ethan had always known Dopey was strong—hell, it had refreshed his understanding again and again.

But after watching it fight so many times, he’d formed a rough estimate.

Dopey should be around peak Tier 35. Stronger than most normal Tier 35 beings, sure—but there should still be a gap between that and a true Stage SS existence at Tier 36.

Yet Dopey had just forced a Stage SS Glacial Bear to retreat.

That was absurd.

They’d been together long enough that the Glacial Bear’s ”invincible” image had basically been stamped into everyone’s brains. Seeing it get pushed back like that made the whole scene feel unreal.

After a long beat, someone finally managed to say, ”That was insane.”

Nobody could come up with a better description.

”ROAR—!”

After getting knocked back, the Glacial Bear wasn’t angry in the slightest.

If anything, it looked even more excited.

Ice flared around it as countless razor-sharp icicles formed in the air, then blasted toward Dopey in a dense, sky-filling storm.

Crack-crack-crack!

The icicles shattered the moment they hit Dopey’s body, bursting into fragments. The sheer impact still drove Dopey backward step after step, keeping it from closing the distance on the bear.

But the Glacial Bear didn’t look smug.

It looked shocked.

Those icicles were insanely hard—any ordinary Stage S would’ve been skewered through and through.

Yet Dopey didn’t even have a scratch on him.

What a terrifying body… the Glacial Bear thought, genuinely rattled.